The Night Before

'Twas the night before the patch. The day's game play is over, the nightly reading done. Soooo,


all things look like a go for Tuesday maintenance to be the long awaited 4.3 patch. It's been coming for some time now, and players everywhere have had opportunities to prepare for it in each of their ways. There's even been a number of blog posts around the community with very sound advice as to how to prepare for this patch release. It's all good, dear reader.

I, like many others, sorted through all this advice gleeming what I thought useful for my several level capped characters (and those close to cap). This time around though, I've taken a somewhat different approach. Such as: Khrox (the BM hunter/pvp'er) really should have spent some time capping out his honor/conquest points in preperation. Smart thing to do, which he didn't do. Instead, he just lazed around the past several weeks doing nothing more than /gquit the pvp guild he was in. Oh, he has a chunk of hp's, and a handful of conquest (which will end up converted) stored up. Any extra effort though seemed worthless for him. We'll get to why in a minute or so.

Cle was also in that same guild, key word, was. He's not quite level capped yet though so he's not really at any loss. Kaimara is in a different guild, though hasn't been active enough with them, or even with them that long. Her stance is one of those, "let's wait and see how it goes." The core of this matter with the three of them is this: the server they call home.

I've been on that server since about the beginning of time (my time). I've seen it's up's and down's. You can actually feel the differences each time the population rises and falls. The server is in a down-trend at this time. IMO, a very deep down-trend, and it's been going on for some time. I won't bore you with all my personal thoughts on this. Suffice it to say, that for me, the server just hasn't been a fun place to play for months. Character transfer is not an option, so everyone justs sits and waits it out.

No problem really. I do have characters spread across enough servers to stay active and enjoy the game. None of them though, are any where near end-game content, and that's okay as well. Plenty to do, lots of options. Enter from stage left, the Great Horde Project!

Being an Alliance player for so long prompted me to spread wings and see things from the opposite factions' eyes. Yep, more story and lore time, YAY! After several server hit and runs, I finally settled on one which seems to viable enough for this project. Started out with a Troll hunter, since I've already got a good dose of Undead somewhere else. Troll hunter didn't really like being all alone though, so after a bit of leveling, he aquired a Tauren pally companion (I also wanted to try tanking). Things are going good so far, I can now see through Tauren eyes. Then, along came this stray Goblin hunter. While not too far behind, there followed an Orc mage. Strange though, the Orc is the only one who don't seem to have some form of dislike/distrust for Garrosh.

So that's where I'm at in game. I would really like to raise several of these Horde characters to cap and experience their full story. I'm sure that after the patch has been out for a few days and the initial dust settles, Khrox and company will jump into their battlegrounds for a bit. In the meantime, the young Horde's are at the beginning of their journey.

IntPiPoMo: Deepholm

Advisory! Image heavy post ahead. Best viewed on site.


This will be my last offering for Angelya's IntPiPoMo Challenge. This was a really fun and interesting challenge to do. Seeing the game through other peoples' eyes always seems to foster a rush of memories and reminders of your own first experiences around Azeroth. I have really enjoyed going around our blogging community. There has been such an out-pouring of creative and beautiful screenshots. As a sometime screenie collecter myself, this challenge has been like a child's trip to a large candy store filled with worldly chocolates. Kk, enough babble.

Sol sent word out to the kids in hopes that one of them might be in the middle of any of his favorite world zones. (he has quite a few favorites) With so many kids about, his outlook was pretty good. Sure enough, Kaimara was padding her reputation stash with Therazane, and was flitting about Deepholm with camera in bag.



Alabaster Shelf



Alliance Airship



Storm's Fury crash site



Crimson Expanse



The Fractured Front



Needlerock Chasm



Strange things appear out of nowhere



The Pale Roost



First they're whole....



...then they're not



Stonecore: many an adventurer has braved this place.



Entrance to Therazanes' Throne



Temple of the Earth



Top of the Temple



Temple of the Earth from above.



Looking up and away from the Temple

"Thanks" goes out to Angelya, for creating this challenge.

IntPiPoMo: Memory Lane

Both the month and Angelya's Challenge are nearing their end. View more participating bloggers here.

It's been something of a quiet night for me, so I've been out and about the WoW blogging community reading stories. Just sort of chillin' out. During one of these most pleasurable reads, I fell into thoughts of time in game which has passed into history. Hence, this trip down Memory Lane.

During Sol's tour of duty in WotLK, he spent an awful amount of time fishing for this mount. That meant at least a half-hour out of every day of game play, for nearly the total expansion time. That's right, almost the total time of the xpac. As I recall, it was only two or three days before Cataclysm, when he finally came into his own turtle mount. To this day though, the Giant Sewer Rat still eludes him.

Sol did not do this mount grind at level, although it was still the 'old school' grind before all the zone and quest re-vamps. He holds a great amount of respect for those before him who accomplished this feat, at level.

Being the first real character to actually level cap, Sol spent many of his early years simply solo questing. He wasn't all that good at dungeons or battlegrounds, and he didn't really understand that faction reps held good rewards. So it came to be that this Albino Drake is the only drake within his stable of mounts. He earned it in later life out of a love for collecting things.

Sol was a real loner, and still clings to those roots even today. His real home is in Darnassas, and can often be found comtemplating conditions of the world at the Temple of the Moon.

When Sol goes off on various adventures, he can easily find the most secluded of places to camp out for the night.

Sol missed out on many adventures, mostly due to his solitary ways. Kaimara was gracious enough though to bring home every detail of the Wrathgate experience.

Sol is, The Explorer. He has seen many different worlds, before and after.

Everyone has their memories of times past, and thoughts of times present. Let alone, speculations over things which are yet to come. Anyway you look at it though, World of Warcraft is still a great game, still offering so many different ways to play. I still discover new things each time I enter Azeroth.

I hope you've enjoyed Sol's little side-trip down Memory Lane. I trust that it has prompted even more of your own.   ~Sol~